Dublin

Dublin is the capital and the largest city in the Republic of Ireland. We really enjoyed our time here and had some time to explore after our races were done. We decided to do a free city walking tour through the same group as in Prague. Our guide was Carl, a native Dubliner. He was a great storyteller and provided us with a great overview of several of the main sights in Dublin and some history of Ireland and its struggles for independence. Our meeting point was city hall, but our first real stop was Dublin Castle, just around the corner. Started in 1204 and finished by 1230, the castle served as a defensive fortification for the city and later as the royal residence. Nowadays it hosts formal State visits and inauguration ceremonies for the elected Presidents of Ireland. Fire severely damaged the castle in 1684 and most was demolished and rebuilt except for the Records Tower which remains standing today. 

The castle has a very different look from your typical European medieval castles which date back to the 1200's because of the fire. The Dubhlinn Gardens is a circular garden situated just behind the castle and has a touch of Celtic nationalism within its design. By just looking at the garden one would never know that it is also designed as a helicopter landing pad in the centre. It's a peaceful place to enjoy some down time and I would never have known it was there. From here we continued on through to an alleyway where a scene from the movie P.S. I Love You was shot. I love that movie because it has so many beautiful scenes in Ireland. We made our way to the Temple Bar district past the Christ Church Cathedral and past the Clarence Hotel which is owned by U2's Bono and The Edge. Unfortunately for me no chance encounter happened. Temple Bar is a district within Dublin's city centre that many tourists confuse with being a bar...it is true that there is a bar called Temple Bar within the Temple Bar district and they lucked out that the area was named that after they opened. Food and drink in this area is rather overpriced according to the locals, but there is no shortage of great atmosphere that is worth experiencing even if you end up paying a little more. Our tour ended on the grounds of the impressive Trinity College. 

The college was founded in 1592 and the main buildings all face inwards. The Old Library is home to the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels written in Latin. The library is also the legal deposit library for Ireland and holds the rights for the United Kingdom which means that the library is entitled to receive a copy of any published material within Ireland and the United Kingdom for free. On another day we went back to the library to view the Book of Kells and the library. The library's long room is most impressive at 65 metres long and holds roughly 200,000 of the library's oldest books from floor to ceiling. Marble busts of different famous writers line either side of the room.

We did a tour at the Whiskey Museum where we learned the history of Irish whiskey making and how it came about. I'm not a whiskey fan, so the tasting portion of the tour was enjoyed by Z. He got to sample four different types of whiskey and learned that some whiskies actually taste better with a drop or two of water.

The Guinness factory is located in Dublin and was a short tram ride away. It only made sense that we also tour the factory while here because this is the only place you'll taste the freshest of fresh Guinness. We did a self tour and part of it included an opportunity to learn how to pour a perfect pint of Guinness. It takes about 119 seconds to complete the perfect pour and this includes settling the initial pour prior to topping it up. It was pretty cool to have an opportunity to pour my own pint and it tasted that much better while on the observation floor overlooking Dublin city.

On our last evening we decided to have dinner at The Bank Bar and Restaurant. This is an elegant bar and restaurant with live piano music. The building as the name implies was originally a bank with the building built in the late 1890's. The Victorian interior boasts stunning stain glass ceiling, mosaic tile floors, pillars of marble and intricate hand carved plaster works and cornicing and served as the main banking hall. In the basement, you can still find the bank vaults, though no longer used, they sit locked. This place was definitely worth the visit and having dinner there.

We had a load of craik in Dublin...now before this gets too misunderstood the term craik in Ireland means having lots of fun, or having a great time. So yes we had a load of craik!! The weather cooperated for us especially on the run days. While Dublin is an old city there are traces of modern throughout. It was nice to see that they do not allow high rise buildings to be built and this provides a nice unobstructed view of the cityscape when on a higher floor. I learned there are way more Irish expats around the world than actually live in Ireland....a lot of this had to do with some tough economic times Ireland experienced over its history. Not sure if this one is true, but there are more cattle than people in Ireland?!? Dublin is expanding its Luas tram lines and the downtown core is a bit of a messy construction zone. The plan apparently is to make the downtown car free. Our hotel was perfectly located in the city centre and made it very easy to walk to and get to all areas that we were visiting. All in all this as a fantastic stop as part of our vacation. It will hold a very special place forever in my memory as the place I completed my first half marathon.